The City of Baytown provides Paid Parental Leave (PPL) to employees following the birth of an employee's child or the placement of a child with an employee in connection with adoption, foster care, or other legal placement to care for and bond with the child.
Eligibility
Eligible employees must have been employed with the City for at least 12 months in a full-time position, meet FMLA leave eligibility requirements, and meet one of the following criteria:
Have given birth to a child;
Be a co-parent of a person who has given birth to a child;
Have adopted a child age 17 or younger, except for adoption by one spouse of the other spouse’s child; or
Placement with the employee of a foster child, or other child, to whom the employee stands in the position of a parent (in loco parentis), age 17 or younger.
PPL is not allowed for placement of a child in parental custody cases, adoption by one spouse of the other spouse’s child, or legal assignments as a Guardian ad Litem. Surrogate mothers and sperm donors are also excluded from this policy. For adoptions, other than an adoption by one spouse of the other spouse’s child, the employee may choose whether the date of adoption of a child is the date the child is initially placed in the employee’s home as a foster child or in anticipation of legal adoption, or the date the adoption is approved by a court of law.
Paid Parental Leave Policy
The City provides up to fifteen days (120 hours maximum, 180 hours for Civil Service Fire shift personnel) of PPL following birth, adoption, or foster care placement on a rolling 12-month time frame. In no case will an employee receive more PPL during a rolling 12-month time frame regardless of whether more than one birth, adoption, or foster care placement occurs within that time frame. If both parents are employed by the City, and each is eligible for PPL as provided in this policy, each parent may use their allotted maximum of PPL. PPL runs concurrently with FMLA and will not increase, in whole or in part, the amount of FMLA leave available to employees.
PPL is compensated at 100 percent of the employee’s regular, straight-time weekly pay. PPL is not counted as time worked. PPL will be paid on a biweekly basis on regularly scheduled pay dates.
PPL may not be used prior to the actual birth or placement of a child. PPL is available for 18 months following the birth, placement or adoption of a child as defined above. Any unused PPL will be forfeited at the end of the 18-month time frame. PPL may not be banked for future use and any balance will not be paid out at separation. PPL will be used prior to use of other accrued leave and employees are not required to exhaust all leave before taking PPL. If a City holiday occurs while the employee is on PPL, the absence will be charged to holiday pay, unless the employee accrues holiday leave, and will not count towards PPL.
Available accrued leave (for example, sick, vacation, holiday) may be used to extend paid leave beyond the fifteen days of PPL. The City will maintain all benefits for employees during the paid parental leave period just as if they were taking any other paid leave.
Requesting PPL
Employees must submit their request for PPL when submitting their FMLA leave request and inform their supervisor of their intention to use PPL during their absence. The employee must request FMLA leave in accordance with Chapter 5. Section 5: Family and Medical Leave of both the City’s Personnel Policy and Administrative Rules. The employee must complete the necessary forms and provide all documentation as required by Human Resources to substantiate the request.
